Welcome! We hope you had a wonderful break with your family and friends over the Christmas and New Year.

In reflection of the year that has passed, ACHPER NSW had many wonderful opportunities to work with delegates and members in further support of your teaching. We thank you for engaging with us at our conferences, workshops, enrichment days, recordings and via our social media platforms through Facebook and Twitter.

“All young people are loved and safe, have material basics, are healthy, are learning and participating and have a positive sense of identity and culture.”

This is the vision for the NEST action agenda – a national plan for child and youth wellbeing – for all Australia’s children.

The Student Wellbeing Action Network (SWAN) was set up as a partnership between Wellbeing Australia and the Australian Research Alliance for Children and Youth to support the NEST agenda. To this end SWAN has four priority areas: student voice, families and communities, disadvantaged students and teacher wellbeing.

As a primary school PE teacher, Kirsty Crouch from Immanuel Primary School in SA, is always looking for new tools to improve her teaching program…… so into the world of IT in PE she jumped!

In this blog post, Kirsty shares seven iPad Apps which she uses regularly in her classroom that work successfully for her and her students. Are you incorporating any of them in your teaching program yet?

The Heart Foundation is marking World Heart Day with analysis showing children aged 5 to 17 years are spending at least 1 hour and 20 minutes watching TV and DVDs and 20 minutes playing electronic games each day.

The analysis, based on the latest Australian Health Survey findings, shows eight out of ten Australian children fail to meet minimum national guidelines of at least 60 minutes physical activity per day, National Heart Foundation CEO Mary Barry said.

Any parent of a teenager or adolescent child will tell you that trying to prise them away from a screen when they are mid-flight in sending a life changing message or viewing ‘just one more’ image on Instagram is nigh on impossible.

The language can be enough to make your hair curl and the conviction with which the device is clutched to the chest is little short of obsessive. Tablet devices are frequently finding their way into bedrooms and now many teenagers’ beds are becoming floodlit with an eerie blue glow as tablets are hidden under sheets and doonas so they can be used at all hours of the night.

Social networking sites such as Facebook have become a popular way for people to source health information, specifically relating to diet and exercise. However many adolescents are unable to differentiate between the credibility and accuracy of the health advice offered.

The results of a study by Stephanie Jong of Flinders University draws on two of the five propositions of the Australian Curriculum: developing health literacy and including a critical approach as ways to build on the enthusiasm of social networking sites and guide adolescents to improve the way they evaluate health information they find online.

Given Australia is moving from development mode into implementation of the new national curriculum in HPE across the majority of states and territories it provides a timely reminder of what quality PE looks like and why it is an absolute necessity.

The graphic below provides a fabulous summary of the key information from the report.

This Position Statement has been developed in ACHPER’s role as the leading professional association for the purpose of contributing to discourse on the importance of the Health and Physical Education learning area in schools. It is part of ACHPER’s responsibility to present its position for the benefit of members as well as for productive, ongoing and future partnerships.

ACHPER’s positions are based on the belief that an educated nation, comprising active and healthy young people, is the best investment we can make in the future and an understanding that school is a very significant setting for children’s intellectual, physical, social and emotional development. The assertions of this position statement have strong foundations in both research related to children and adolescents and in current curriculum.

You can view the National Position Statement ‘Importance of the Health and Physical Education learning area in schools‘ below.

Learning is fundamental. Where would you be without all of the great teachers who spent time helping you learn about yourself and the world? Each week we will post an inspiring quote, video or photo that you can use to either motivate yourself, your staff or your classes.

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Acknowledgement of Country

ACHPER NSW acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land on which we work. We pay our respects to Elders past and present, and extend our respect to all Elders and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people across Australia.